question

bigal avatar image
bigal asked

MMPT 100/20 exceeding allowed voltage when charging

Hello,

I have a house bank of GEL batteries which per the manufacturer have a bulk of 14.2v, abs 14.1 and float of 13.6.

My BMV712 is set to alarm on 14.4v.

The only charging source when I am not on the boat is the MPPT100/20 which is set as per this picture:

You can see the abs is 14.2v - no option to set bulk.

I am getting alarms about transient high voltage (14.2v in the picture below) when ever the system goes from bulk to absorption, which I can see in VRM:

Is this really a good thing?


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2 Answers
snoobler avatar image
snoobler answered ·

Ah of battery?

Are you using temperature compensation?

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neoneddy avatar image
neoneddy answered ·

Bulk is just a term for pushing as many amps as possible to the battery until it hits the Absorption voltage. Then it switches to Absorption mode where it holds a voltage a limits current. Set the Absorb voltage to 14.1 or 14.2, your call, I know gel batteries are less tolerant of over charging.

I see the voltage quickly drops after that as well, if there is another charging source or a load that is removed it could cause a voltage spike. The MPPT charger is fast, but it looks as though the difference between 14.2 and 14.4v is less than 1 amp of charge current. It wouldn't take much to throw it off a bit. I wouldn't worry about it too much if it's just for a few seconds. You can click + drag your mouse across areas of the graph to zoom in more, I like to set the VRM to update every minute to get very accurate data.

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